Civil disobedience planned worldwide against oil

May 2, 2016 (GIN) – The highly touted Paris Climate talks last year were supposed to produce an agreement among the world’s nations to “keep the oil in the soil” and reduce global greenhouse emissions, thus avoiding the threat of dangerous climate change.
Scientists warn that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the threshold will be passed beyond which global warming becomes catastrophic and irreversible.
Nearly 200 nations signed onto the climate deal. But China and the U.S. – the world’s top producers of greenhouse gas emissions – stopped short of the most important step. They declined to adopt it.
The deal enters into force only when ratified by at least 55 nations representing 55 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
This month over a two week period, a global wave of mass actions has been announced to keep oil, coal and gas in the ground and accelerate the just transition to 100 % renewable energy.
According to a map by the group breakfree2016.org, actions are already planned in Europe, Brazil, Nigeria, Canada, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and South Africa.
In “Stories from the Global Resistance to Fossil Fuels,” the group has posted pictures and stories from Los Angeles, Vancouver, Germany, and South Africa where two actions will highlight the impact of coal and climate change.
Nigeria is represented by Nnimmo Bassey, director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation. Initial plans for the worldwide event this month were unveiled at the Paris talks.
“We know that civil disobedience actually gets government to sit up and take notice,” said Kumi Naidoo, executive director at Greenpeace International. “We are talking with a range of organizations to push the idea of ‘a billion acts of courage’ and we are doing this in a strategic way.”
Bassey questioned the climate treaty’s prospects. “How can you achieve (controlling the rise in temperature) while investments are still going on in the fossil fuel sector?” he asked.
Actions have started in some parts of the world. This week, climate protestors in the UK invaded the UK’s largest opencast coal mine with banners reading No New Coal.
In New York, activists will gather in Albany to say “no” to new gas and oil pipelines, fossil fuel barges and trains. Information about the May 14th action in Albany can be found at 350nyc.org